Railway car structure



Sept. 2, v 1947.

G. G. GlLPlN RAILWAY cAR STRUCTURE Filed Jan. 1o, 1944 m Jeff INVENTOR. 6m a agp@ VBY Patented Sept. 2, 1947 RAILWAY CAR STRUCTURE Garth G. Gilpin, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application January 10, 1944, Serial No. 517,753

9 Claims.

The invention relates to the structure of a railway car and more particularly to the member and elements associated therewith for connecting the side wall and roof of a railway house car, such as box, furniture and automobile cars. Such member is generally called a side plate or top chord.

The side walls of a house car form a pair of trusses which carry the lading and the body of the car to the body bolsters from whence they are transferred to the track through the trucks.

Each side wall constitutes a single truss and comprises a top chord (called a side plate) and a bottom chord (called a side sill) connected by a series of vertical posts and diagonal braces.

Sometimes a steel plate is used instead of the diagonal braces which is secured to the top chord, bottom chord and posts so that the side wall constitutes a truss but the functions of the top chord are substantially the same in either case, and as far as the invention is concerned, it is immaterial whether the side wall is a truss or a girder as the side plate is still a top chord and a compression member.

The roof of a, house car is a girder positioned in a substantially horizontal plane. The functions of the roof girder are:

(a) To keep the side wall trusses in substantially Vertical and parallel planes so that they will develop their full strengths as trusses.

(b) Prevent the side walls from approaching each other and in so doing the roof acts as a column, or in fact the carlines of the roof, are a series of spaced columns.

(c) Prevent the side walls from spreading and in so doing the roof acts as a tie member which function, in a modern roof, is accomplished by the cooperation of the carlines and the roof sheets.

(d) Prevent the roof of the car from jackkning; i. e., the roof assuming the shape of a parallelogram.

(e) Furthermore when the car sways laterally due to rough track and going around curves there is a tendency to increase or decrease (depending upon the direction of the sway) the angle between the plane of the side wall and the plane of the roof.

From the above it will be seen that the side plate simultaneously performs a great many functions and that the side plate with its associated parts resist stresses in a great many directions. It must be strong as a column because it is the compression member of the truss or girder and must be strong as a beam between the end walls of the car as a single beam and between the respective (Cl. 10S-107) 2 posts as a plurality of beams therebetween and must provide means for a good connection between the posts of the side wall and between the roof structure to resist the tendency of the swaying of the car to change the angularity between the side wall and roof.

The object 0f the invention is to provide a light-weight side plate which forms a connecting member between the side ywall and roof of a railway car which is very strong along both its vertical and neutral axes and which is easy to manufacture and install upon the car and provides easy means for attaching the roof thereto.

A further object is to provide a side plate which forms a rounded corner between the side wall and roof of a car for streamlining, and furthermore, to permit the lading space to be made higher and/or wider without encroaching upon the maximum clearance established by the Association of American Railroads for interchange of cars.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a transverse cross section of my improved side plate for railway car and associated parts as applied to a refrigerator car.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a modified side plate and associated roof and side wall.

The side plate comprises a main vertical portion l; an upwardly and inwardly curved portion 2 and a lateral portion 3 extending inwardly from the main portion above the bottom and below the top thereof.

The roof illustrated 4com-prises side sheets i extending between and secured to the opposite side plates of the car, which sheets are formed with upstanding flanges 5 at their meeting margins. The carlinecap 6 straddles the roof sheet flanges and is secured thereto by the rivet 1. The carline caps likewise extend between and are secured to both side plates.

Reference numeral 8 shows one of the several posts forming the struts of the truss. The post is secured to the side plate by the rivets 9. rThe side wall sheet lil underlies the offset portion Il of the side plate and is secured to such portion and the post by the rivet l2. The post may be secured to the lateral portion of the side plate, if desired, by a knee bracket or weld material.

A wooden longitudinal timber I3, or other heat resisting material, is supported by and secured to the lateral portion 3 of the side plate by the vertical bolt M. A timber or cleat l5 holds the insulation l to the member through the means ci the bolt Il, The bolts b3 and il are staggered 3 to prevent heat transference and so as not to split the member i3.

A wooden lining i8 is secured to and partially supported by the cleat l5. The lining protects the insulation from the lading.

I prefer to support the ceiling and roof insulation i9 independently of the exterior roof, therefore, I provide inside carlines which rest upon the member I3 and are secured thereto by the bolt M. The insulation is positioned between the carlines or may overlap them, as desired. The lining 2l is nailed to the inside carlines. The inside carlines 20, ceiling 2| and roof insulation YIii are, therefore, supported by the lateral portion 3 of the side plate l independently of the exterior roof, i. e., the carlines 5 6.

Fig. 3 shows a modication wherein the portion 3G of the side plate 3l below the lateral portion 32 is positioned at the inside margin of the lateral portion. The side sheathing 33 overlaps and is secured to the main portion 3l of the side plate. The vertical post 34 isV positioned between and is secured to Vboth the side sheathing 33 and depending iiange of the side plate.

The upstanding flange ofthe side plate extends -upwardly to provide an upwardly and inwardly curved portion 35 to which the roof 36 is secured. Fig. 3 also shows a portion of the side plate offset to provide a water-table 31 above the upper edge of the side sheathing.

If desired, the wooden member, inside carline, cleat and other associated elements shown in Fig. 1 may be similarly installed with the side plate of Fig. 3 by resting the member upon the lateral portion of this modified construction.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. In a railway car structure the combination of a side wall top chord comprising a main verti- -cal portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion and a lateral portion extending inwardly from the main portion in spaced relation'to the curved portion; a roof secured to the curved p0rtion or the chord, a heat resisting member supported by and secured to the lateral portion 'of the chord, a timber, a side wall ply insulation between said member and said timber, a bolt securing said timber and said insulation to said member, and a lining secured to said timber, whereby the side wall insulation and the lining are partially supported by the top chord independently of the roof.

2. A structure as dened in claim 1 including inside carlines supported by the lateral portion of the chord; a ceiling supported by said carlines, and roof insulation supported by said ceiling, whereby the ceiling and the roof insulation are also partially supported by the top chord independently of the roof.`

3. In a railway car structure the combination of a side wall top chord comprising a main vertical portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion and a lateral portion extending inwardly from the main portion in spaced relation to the curved portion and adapted to support a carline therebetween, a roof secured to the curved portion of the chord, a vertical portion projecting downwardly from said lateral portion, and vertical side wall posts secured to said last mentioned vertical portion of the chord below said lateral portion thereof.

4. A side wall top chord comprising a main vertical portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion issuing from the upper edge of said main portion and adapted to support a roof, a lateral portion extending inwardly from the main portion and adapted to support a carline independently of the curved portion, and a vertical portion projecting downwardly from said lateral portion.

5. In a railway car structure the combination of a side wall top chord comprising 'a main vertical portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion continuing from the upper edge thereof, a horizontal portion extending from said main portion spaced below said curved portion and adapted to support a carline therebetween and a vertical portion depending from said horizontal portion, a roof secured to the curved portion of the chord, and a vertical side wall post secured to said depending vertical portion of the chord.

6. In a railway car structure, the combination of a wall top chord comprising a vertical portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion, and a lateral portion extending inwardly from said vertical portion; a roof including carlines secured to the curved portion of the chord, inside carlines, supported by the lateral portion of the chord, independently of the roof, and roof insulation supported by said inside carlines.

7. In a railway car structure, the combination of a wall top chord comprising a Vertical portion, an upwardly and inwardly curved portion, and a lateral portion extending inwardly from said vertical portion; aroof including carlines secured to the curved portion of the chord, inside carlines, supported by the lateral portion of the chord, independently of the roof, roof insulation supported -by said inside carlines, and wall Posts secured directly to said lateral portion.

8. A chord member for a railway car wall, said chord comprising a flat portion, a curved portion issuing from one edge of said hat portion, and a lateral portion extending from'and normal to said dat portion in the direction of said curved portion, said curved portion adapted to support a car roof and said lateral portion adapted to support a carline independently of said curved porion.

9. A chord member for a railway car wall, s aid chord comprising a hat portion, a curved portion issuing from one edge of said at portion, and a lateral portion extending from `and normal to said flat portion in the direction of said curved portion, saidcurved portion adapt-ed to support a car roof, said lateral portion adapted to support a carline independently of said curved portion and said lateral portion also adapted to be supported by the post of said wall.

GARTH G. GILPIN.

REFERENCES CITED 'The following references are of record in the lle of this patent: i

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,156,778 Duryea May 2, 1939 2,225,170 Gilpin Dec. 17', 1940 1,749,473 Des Islets Mar. 4, 1930 

